My Florida Story: The View Taping at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

One of the great things about living in Central Florida is that there is always something going on. It may be festivals, concerts, and the most interesting to me, television tapings. We have had the opportunity to see the taping of Disney’s Christmas Day Parade several different times as well as tapings for other specials. We could have seen The Chew, Wheel of Fortune and a few other shows but didn’t really push the issue. One that we did try really hard to attend was a taping of The View.

Our friends on social media let us know that you could head over to a website to sign up to be part of the audience for The View which was coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom for a week in March 2017. We signed up in January of 2017 and, pretty much, lost hope as we had not heard a thing up to the weekend before the show was to be at Walt Disney World. I received an email that said that our waitlist had become available for one of the shows and I followed the steps to secure the tickets for Jordan and me.

We had to arrive pretty early and stand in a line to get checked in. Once we checked in we both received a The View at Walt Disney World t-shirt and a wristband. Jordan’s wristband contained a dot on it which we later found out was due to him being a minor and he could not be eligible for the prize that was given out during the taping. After checking in we were led to yet another queue and waited. The wait really wasn’t that long until we moved once again. We were led into Disney’s Animal Kingdom and past the Tree of Life which is where the stage was set up. As we passed by Andy Grammer was rehearsing to prepare for the show. It was all very exciting as the other guests in the park were curious what was going on and we were going to be able to be a part of it.

We were again corralled into a holding area as we waited to be seated. It seemed like we were waiting a while in this area and basically a Disney Cast Member would escort a group of ticket holders through the normal guests to the stage area and get them seated. We were taken into the stage area and told to sit in a certain location, which was directly beside the microphone where Andy Grammer was to perform. Unfortunately, my height caused us to have to move as a production manager said I was too tall for the camera behind me so we were moved to a “not so great” second location. Hey, we were in though and that is all that mattered.

As we waited the hype guy got the audience excited and gave us all instructions. It was pretty funny as he poked fun at anyone who wasn’t giving their full enthusiasm. One audience member really got the brunt of the poking, which definitely led the rest of us to give all that we had so as to not be called out. When this segment started they did some Facebook behind the scenes things with Andy Grammer and he performed and talked afterward with hosts Sonny Hostin and Sarah Haines. After this segment, we were all escorted back to the holding area.

When we were seated again for the actual show taping we were in the second row and had pretty good seats actually. Everyone passed by us as they went to the stage and when they walked off so we could almost reach out and touch all the celebrities which was pretty cool for boy me and Jordan. Jordan was very excited because John Stamos was one of the guest on the show that day. Jordan is a huge “Full House” and “Fuller House” fan. The show had a lot of energy and was a lot of fun. I didn’t win the vacation to Aulani but you can’t win them all.

After the taping we headed home to watch the show as it aired that day. We found it fascinating how they put the pieces of the production together to make the show. How they blended things that were recorded earlier into the show and how seemlessly it all played out on air. We were able to see ourselves a few times and of course paused it to be sure to show Christina and Cameron that we were now celebrities! It was such a fun experience and I am so glad we had the opportunity.